The fight will take place at The Hangar at the Orange County Fair and Events Center and will be televised on HBO.

The winner of the fight becomes the mandatory challenger for WBC champion Vitali Klitschko. That's a road that Arreola has traveled down once, but to no avail.

In 2009, Arreola faced Klitschko for the WBC title and was soundly defeated. The fight was stopped after the 10th round.

After an easy bounce-back victory over Brian Minto three months later, Arreola again found himself with a big moment as he faced Tomasz Adamek in 2010. Again, Arreola came up short.

It wasn't until his next fight that he decided change was needed.

“When I fought Manny Quezada (Aug. 2010), I went 12 rounds with that kid; he shouldn't have lasted four rounds with me,” Arreola said. “No disrespect to him, but he didn't belong in that ring with me. He shouldn't have gone 12 rounds. I shouldn't have broken my hands, I shouldn't have had two black eyes from fighting a guy like him … that's what woke me up.”

To his credit, Arreola has seemed to rededicate himself to his craft. He has been in better shape in his recent fights, and that, he said, has helped him focused more on in-the-ring things.

The change has been evident, to his Arreola's promoter, Dan Goossen.

“It was guts, heart and determination that carried him through all of those fights,” Goossen said. “He was missing a very important ingredient that brings all of those assets to the top level and that's being in great condition.

“Now, to throw that in there, I don't believe that anybody can stop him.”

THE HANGAR

The fight has had its share of proposed sites, from Venezuela to USC's Galen Center. Finally, the choice ended up being The Hangar.

“I tried to go to Staples, I tried to go to Nokia, Citizens Business Bank Arena and all of them were booked,” Goossen said. “It was either taking it (the fight) to Texas or elsewhere or keep it out here in California which is where we feel Chris belongs. The Hangar was open.”

Roy Englebrecht, who promotes his Fight Club OC shows from The Hangar, said he's excited about the opportunity.

“For the past year and a half, since we launched Fight Club OC in The Hangar in 2011, I have been pitching the top promoters in the country to consider The Hangar has a great 2,000-seat venue for some quality shows,” Englebrecht said. “I told them they would love a jammed-packed, high-energy Hangar crowd, than 15,000 empty seats at a sports arena.

“So I was thrilled to get Dan's call that he wanted to bring an HBO show to the O.C. … you can say I am one happy fight promoter.

Tickets go on sale to the public Friday, online at
www.fightcluboc.com or by calling 818-817-8001.